Junction City residents can expect to see a 6% rate increase in water and wastewater in 2017.

City Manager Allen Dinkel said a rate increase isn’t ideal but necessary. “About three years ago the City made the decision to upgrade the water plant and likewise the waste water plant – one to meet requirements, updates the plants so we meet all the EPA and KDHE requirements – when they put that in place the plan was to increase rates by 6% a year for a 10 year period.”

The ten year period is part of Phase 1 improvements for the water and wastewater plants.

Dinkel said that this is just the “cost of having the funds to do what needs to be done to improve the system,” stating that one of the City’s functions is to provide high quality drinking water.

Just over a quarter of a million dollars was invested into the City by City Commissioners Tuesday evening at their weekly meeting.

The City approved the purchase of two sanitation trucks for the Department of Public Works.

Ray Ibarra, Department of Public Works Director said that the new trucks are essential in order for sanitation crews to work their routes. “During the past seven months, two of the sanitation trucks have been out of service from time to time anywhere from one to three months; the issue is that when two of these trucks go down at the same time it’s impossible for sanitation crews to pick  up their five weekly routes – in order to work properly, we would need five trucks in the fleet in case one of those two go down.”

One of the trucks is a 2007 Rear Load Sanitation truck in the amount of $60,000 and the other a 2017 Side Loading Sanitation truck with the freightliner chassis in the amount of $207,522.

Geary Community Hospital officials continue their search for a Pediatrician.

Florence Whitebread, County Commission Chair provided that information following a hospital briefing.

“They had someone pretty close to signing and she decided to stay in her hometown area,” said Whitebread.

The search continues for a pediatrician. For a list of current openings at Geary Community Hospital click here.

The Geary USD 475 Board of Education will face a tough decision in February – to build a new high school, or not to build a new high school?

A JCHS Steering Committee has been tasked with making a recommendation to the Board in February – and if the steering committee favors a new school, what will the Board decide?

Anwar Khoury, Board member, said that there should be a delay before the new Junction City High School project is pursued. “The possibility that the mil levy is going to be increased is kind of turning off a lot of people and I’m glad we have the Steering Committee and hopefully we have a community meeting to talk about this, but we really have to have our finances completely together – maybe we’re still early in the process – and we need to get all that impact money together and then come to the community and have the State help us out with that.”

Khoury is referring to the Heavily Impacted Federal Aid the District has been receiving which would be used to pay for a new school. State Aid would then pay for up to 48% of the school under current law, but that could change after the 2017 session of the Kansas Legislature.

The uncertainty in what the State may fund after they meet in 2017 has Board member Brian Field saying – do not delay. “We have a window, where that 48% that we could get in State aid is there, we have a window of the Heavily Impacted Aid that could be coming in, but I think most importantly we need to think about the fact that – 10% that school’s going to go up – right now the money may be here, in three or four years it may not be at all.”

Right now there is a possibility of paying for a new high school without using local tax dollars.

Field adds that the schools are funded by “per pupil allotment” and as the District loses students, the money received goes down. “We know that we’re losing some of our students to surrounding Districts, and Districts that have a better high school facility…it’s not just military, the downsizing of the military is a reason we are losing students, but we are seeing that our enrollment is declining because we are losing students to other Districts and we need to find some ways to retain those students.”

There will be Town Hall meetings on the topic of a possible new Junction City High School in January. The Steering Committee will make a recommendation to the Board of Education in February.

There is a chance of light snow in the Geary County region on Wednesday.

Geary County Public Works will be prepared.

Public Works Dennis Cox said they spend a great deal of time getting ready ahead of the winter season. “That’s as big part of it. We’ve got a group of guys that have been doing it for a long time. So the routes that we run are pretty well defined.” They will monitor the weather to determine when to begin 12-hour work shifts until roads are died out and any snow is removed.

Cox reported that the County typically is stocked with about 500 tons of salt on the ground. They use a 50-50 blend on the salt-sand that is applied on county roads for traction, and to dry out ice and snow.

UPDATE:

Junction City police have issued a news release on two separate death investigation cases.

In one on Monday officers responded to the 600 block of West Spruce Street for an unresponsive subject. Upon arrival officers located a 70-year old man deceased. No foul play is suspected, but the case is being investigated by detectives.

In the second case no foul play is suspected at this time as well. Officers responded to the 500 block of West Spruce street at 12:19 a.m. on Tuesday in reference to an injured subject. Upon arrival officers located a 22-year old man with critical injuries. He was transported to Geary Community Hospital where he later died. An autopsy has been scheduled, the case is under investigation, but police said at this time no foul play is suspected.

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The Tuesday morning tour log report from the Junction City Police Department contains two reports of death investigations.

Police reported that they got the call at 10:24 a.m. Monday in the 600 block of West Spruce Street, and the second case at 12:19 a.m. Tuesday in the 500 block of West Spruce Street.

No other specific information has been released, although police have indicated a press release is expected to be issued later on Tuesday.